Pernese vocabulary is full of technical terms, ranging from synonyms for perfectly normal Earth creatures to Pern-specific plants, animals, foods, ranks, and problems. If Thread falls on a caprine grazing near some fellis, should you run for the Agenothree, or just keep sipping your klah? If you find the previous question a complete puzzle, read on to clarify just what is what in Pern-talk. Also added are some of the more common OOC phrases.

AM - Anne McCaffrey.

App - Apprentice crafter, one who is at the beginning of their studies in their chosen craft.

Apprentice Master/AppM/AM - A teacher of apprentices.

ATWL - All the Weyrs List. A list of all the dragons ever hatched on Pern M*.

ATWoP - All the Weyrs of Pern, one of Anne's books.

Assistant Weyrlingmaster/AWLM - A rider who assists the Weyrlingmaster in the training of Weyrlings.

Baker - A craft skilled in cooking and nutrition.

BeastCrafter - A vet, and raiser of animals.

Candidate - A character who has been chosen to stand for the hatching of a clutch.

Client- A computer program that offers an improvement on raw telnet, designed for use with MU* games. Examples include MUSHClient and SimpleMU. See 'Connecting'.

Code - What makes the game run.

Conclave - A council of all the Lord Holders.

Crafter - A person studying or proficient in a craft.

Craftmaster/CM - The Master in charge of a particular craft.

Craftsecond/C2 - The crafter who assists the Craftmaster in the running of the craft.

DH/DHL - A Dragonhealer, or healer of dragons, firelizards and watch whers.

DLG - The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern, a reference book for Pern. First and Second edition.

DTU - Dragon Talk Unit, which is a piece of code used to simulate the dragon’s telepathic capabilities with each other, and their riders.

ElseM* - Another roleplaying game.

Fellis - A narcotic substance used to drug people senseless. Very addictive. Only a few people have access to Fellis.

FL - Firelizard. A miniature dragon.

Flame - A term used to describe knot chat, +mail email, or other posted notes that aren’t intended to be useful or helpful, generally they are argumentative in nature.

Flatfile - A saved version of the database. If the game crashes, or needs to be moved, it may be restored from the flatfile.

Guides - Chosen players who are available to help and guide new players to Soucon.

Harper - A musician, archivist, a teacher and diplomat.

Hatchling - A newly hatched dragon.

Healer - Doctors and Nurses.

Holder - A person who lives in a hold.

IC - In Character, usually refers to things that characters do, within the game context, i.e. fly a dragon, practice a craft etc.

ICSO - Denotes a character's on-camera love interest.

Impression – The moment when a dragon chooses its lifemate, a telepathic/empathic bonding.

Jman - A Journeyman crafter, one is proficient in their chosen craft.

Jr Weyrwoman/JrWW - A goldrider who's gold is not the senior of the Weyr.

Klah - A simulative drink, much like coffee.

Log - A copy of something done on the mush, generally major events are usually logged so that other people can see what happened if they miss the event, such as hatchings.

Lord/Lady Holder/LH - The title holders of a Major Hold, confirmed by a council of Major Holders, known as the Conclave.

Mav - A pose meant for one game or situation that shows up in another game or situation, purely an accidental occurrence. Common in high spam events, like flights, or gathers.

Meatroll - A sausage roll.

Multipage/mp -Used as a method of paging more than one person at a time.

M* - The different kinds of text-based roleplaying games out there: MUSH, MOO, MUD, etc.

MUSH - Multi-User Shared Hallucination, a text based ‘game’ online. In the case of Soucon: themed to the works of Anne McCaffrey, where people log into the game and play characters they create along the lines of the world described in the books.

NC - The Northern Continent of Pern, formerly our sister game, PernMUSH.

Off Camera - What happens that is not Rped. Generally used in flights, where sex is expected to happen, but whether individuals may not wish to RP it.

On-camera - What happens in actual RP.

OOC - Out Of Character, generally refers to actions taken by players of characters or things for the game that do not pertain to the ‘lives’ of the characters, i.e. talking about their real life.

Page/p - A way to communicate OOCly with another individual. See also multipage.

PC - Player Character, the ‘real’ players on the game, the ones logged in.

Newbie - A player new to the world of Pern and/or Soucon.

NPC - Non Player Character, ‘not real’ players, which are used as reference, or color.

RL - Real Life, what happens outside the game.

RP - Roleplay, the ability of a player to play his character by the rules of the game, and make his character seem real.

Search - The process of choosing new riders.

Search Co - The Search Committee of a given Weyr. These are the people who evaluate all materials pertaining to Search.

Senior Weyrwoman/Sr WW- The rider of the Senior, usually oldest fertile queen, in the Weyr. The female leader of the Weyr. The Weyrwoman is responsible for the day to day running of the Weyr, as well as being leader of the Queen’s wing.

SC - The Southern Continent of Pern, Soucon MUSH, us!

SO - Significant Other. Used as a generic term for boyfriend/girlfriend, lover, housemate, spouse. Usually an OOC term.

Spam - Massive amounts of text.

Stand only - A candidate who is standing only for the experience, not to Impress a dragon. This is OOC.

TP - Tinyplot, which is a plot that involves a group of characters.

TinySex/TS - The actual roleplaying of sex, ie cybersex.

Turn - One year. Around 3 months on the game.

Twink - Someone who refuses to cooperatively roleplay on the game.

Weyr - Usually an extinct volcano, adapted for the use of riders and dragons as living space. On the Southern continent generally just a place where dragons live.

Weyrleader/WL - The rider of the bronze dragon who catches the Senior gold, the male leader of the Weyr. The Weyrleader is responsible for maintaining overall Weyr discipline, the fighting wings, and training.

Weyrling - Someone who has recently Impressed a dragon, generally under 1.5 Turns of age.

Weyrlingmaster/WLM -The rider in charge of training the Weyrlings.

Weyrsecond/W2nd - The rider of the bronze dragon who catches the Senior gold, the male leader of the Weyr. The Weyrleader is responsible for maintaining overall Weyr discipline, the fighting wings, and training.

Weyrwoman/WW/ww - Can be preceded by Sr. or Jr. When used alone, the term denotes the Senior Weyrwoman of a given Weyr.

Willow Bark - Aspirin.

Wingleader/WiL - A rider who leads a Wing. In the books this is generally restricted to Bronze and Brown riders. Soucon has no such distinction.

Wingsecond/Wi2/Wi2nd - A rider who second a Wing, and takes over should the Wingleader be injured. In the books this is generally restricted to Bronze and Brown riders. Soucon has no such distinction.

Wizards/wizzies/wiz - The game’s administrators. They are in charge of the machine, the database of the gam and can deal with game abuse. They have the power to permanently remove a player from the game.